T. Belman.  Finally, this is the only thing that will work.

Reported request of ultra-Orthodox party apparently aimed at paving way for Liberman to join right-wing government led by incumbent PM

TOI

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly asked the head of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party to show more flexibility on issues of religion and state to potentially open the door for the secularist Yisrael Beytenu party to join a government of right-wing and religious factions.

This was the first time Netanyahu made such a request of his ultra-Orthodox allies, Channel 12 news reported Saturday.

The TV channel did not say how Shas chief Aryeh Deri responded, nor whether Netanyahu made a similar request of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party. Read more…

There is so much corruption in US politics. So much more and worse than candidate Donald Trump ever imagined when he campaigned on a promise to “drain the swamp.”  The corruption is so pervasive and runs so deep that perhaps it cannot be drained.

By Rabbi Prof. Dov Fischer, INN

The Jewish holidays season recently has ended. It begins with Rosh Hashanah, which Jewish tradition sets as the New Year of all humanity . . . runs through the Jewish Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, the anniversary of G-d forgiving the sin of the Golden Calf after Moses alighted Mount Sinai the second time and prayed forty days for forgiveness (Sh’mot/Exodus 34) . . . continues into the week-long celebration of the Sukkot festival (Vayikra/Leviticus 23: 33-43) . . . and culminates with the holidays of Sh’mini Atzeret and Simchat Torah when Jews celebrate the spiritual joy of having publicly read and studied the Pentateuch, the Five Books of Moses, during the prior twelve months — and then begin the annual cycle anew with Breishit/Genesis 1 by publicly reading the Torah all over again, starting with “In the Beginning, G-d created the heavens and the earth.”

Because I am a congregational rabbi, I mostly have to go “off the grid” on most other matters every year during a two-month period that begins from two or three weeks before Rosh Hashanah (preparing divrei Torah sermons, coordinating membership drives, overseeing our shul’s High Holidays hotel program, brushing up on shofar sounding) and that continues two weeks or so after Simchat Torah, as I promptly must catch up frantically on six weeks of secular matters that necesarily have taken a back seat all that time.
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MK Yair Lapid speaks in Paris, sends a message to anti-Semites around the world.

By Hezki Baruch, INN

MK Yair Lapid, one of the leaders of the Blue and White party, spoke at the ELNET conference in Paris and sent a message to anti-Semites around the world.

At the start of his remarks, Lapid quoted the late Israeli author Ephraim Kishon, who said, “The State of Israel was not established so that anti-Semitism will stop. It was established so we could tell the anti-Semites to shove it.”

Lapid continued, “The great anti-Semitic project, over the years, is to convince the world that anti-Semitism is the result of something the Jews have done. That anti-Semitism is a result, and there is a reason to justify it. Anti-Semitism never acknowledges what it really is: xenophobia.” Read more…

T. Belman. I have updated this post to include the whole article.  It is over 5000 words long but must be read.  I have made bold all the remarkable statements. Truly an eye-opener.

by Gary Saul Morson, THE NEW CRITERION

On the pernicious legacy of Vladimir Lenin.

Editors’ note: The following is an edited version of remarks delivered at The New Criterion’s inaugural Circle Lecture on September 25, 2019.

Lenin was more severe.

—Vyacheslav Molotov, the only senior official to work for both Lenin and Stalin, when asked to compare them.

Lenin “in general” loved people but . . . his love looked far ahead, through the mists of hatred.

—Maxim Gorky
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T. Belman.  This article reeks of Haaretz.  I crossed out a few words.  I couldn’t find a fairer article.

The organization faces calls to investigate suspicions that tens of millions of dollars earmarked for Jerusalem have wound up being used to buy land and other property in occupied territory in Judea and Samaria.

By Raviv Drucker, HAARETZ

A few years ago, a strange thing happened. The rotten organization called KKL-Jewish National Fund agreed, under massive public pressure, to address criticism from the state comptroller.

But this welcome turn of events was soon thwarted by Ministers Yariv Levin and Ze’ev Elkin, the ideological right wing of the Likud. And for good reason: Though it took them decades to realize it, the right finally figured out that it had a handy bank that was flush with cash, devoid of restraints and practically free of outside oversight: KKL-JNF. Why not use this bank for things the government would never agree to fund?
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Gary Saul Morson, the Lawrence B. Dumas Professor of the Arts and Humanities at Northwestern University, discusses “Leninthink,” with James Panero,

By JENNIFER BRACERAS, Special to the Sun | 

Many commentators are breathlessly reporting that America is on the brink of a constitutional crisis. They’re right, but not in the sense that they imagine.

Political scientists and law professors define a “constitutional crisis” as a standoff between government actors where the constitution or other governing law provides no answer. Some analysts see such a crisis in President Trump’s refusal to cooperate with the House of Representatives’ impeachment inquiry. The House, though, has the constitutional authority to impeach a president simply for refusing to cooperate. The real problem for those who wish to see the president removed from office is that the House may not have the political fortitude to do that. Even if the House does impeach, the Senate is unlikely to convict.
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Because the MB is financed largely by Turkey, which has also been funding its terrorist operations, the Trump Administration correctly cancelled Turkey’s participation in the F35 fighter jet program, but has not curbed Turkey’s mosque financing in the U.S., Latin America, and Europe. The MB’s other major funder, Qatar, has also been infiltrating and subverting American universities. The Trump administration has discussed designating the MB as a foreign terror organization, but has done nothing yet.

Donor countries could live with 70 years of fostering hatred and incitement against Israel, but they cannot stand for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees to be tainted by corruption allegations.

By Ron Prosser, ISRAEL HAYOM

When I heard that United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East Commissioner Pierre Krahenbuhl resigned, I was shocked. After all, the UN does not have the best track record when it comes to investigating corruption allegations against its own agencies, let alone when it comes to the UNRWA, which until recently had airtight immunity from criticism.

For 70 years, UNRWA has been something of a separate entity in the UN, one dedicated solely to the issue of Palestinian “refugees,” alongside the agency that handles all other refugees – the UNHCR. But unlike the former UNRWA never even tried to solve the refugee problem and seemed dedicated to perpetuating it.

Case in point: When UNRWA was founded in 1949, there were around 700,000 Palestinian refugees in the world. Today, their number stands at 5.7 million.
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To defeat the Islamist, Communist and Socialist threats to the United States, we must adopt the Cold War model, according to which war is a marathon, not a sprint.

By Ken Abromowitz, ISRAEL HAYOM

People and organizations within and beyond Washington, DC, public policy circles, including US President Donald Trump, have expressed grave concern at the possibility that the United States is engaged in “endless wars.”

Practically since the birth of the United States of America, various ideologies have waged war against us. For the Islamists (Muslim supremacists), this was but a continuation of their – at that time – uninterrupted 1,200-year war against non-Muslims everywhere, and Muslims whose version of the faith they didn’t agree with.

It wasn’t until President Thomas Jefferson decided to stand up to the endless, unprovoked, savage assaults against US trade vessels by the Barbary pirates that violent jihadist acts against us stopped – for a while.
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We are advancing in cruise missiles, and the Iranians are advancing. This is an arms race.

Dr. Uzi Rubin, ISRAEL HAYOM

The Sept. 14 combined cruise missile and drone attack on the Abqaiq Saudi oil facility, which caused extensive damage and has been attributed to Iran, is a “global wake-up call for understanding that the threat is here and now,” a senior former Israeli air-defense source said on Thursday.

The Saudis did not have any prior intelligence warning, and their advanced air-defense systems – one of the largest in the region – failed to stop the attack, noted the source.

“We know from our own microcosm that the Iron Dome batteries must be ready at all times because threats can pop up without warning. Now, we can all see the importance in the presence of effective air defenses against a range of threats on 24-hour readiness, guarding 360 degrees,” the source stressed.
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T. belman.  I would imagine that CAIR is backing these women and the Democratic Party is cooperating.

Politics expert: Women of color are “next generation of leaders”

BY Donna Rachel Edmunds, JPOST

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has lent her support to the 26 Muslim candidates emerged victorious in Tuesday’s off-year US elections, tweeting news of their successes.

The election wins brings the total number of Muslims elected to office in the States this year to 34. Fifteen of the candidates were newly elected. Muslim advocacy groups have described the results as a blow against Islamophobia and a triumph for community organization.

Tlaib is one of four Democrat congresswomen who have shot to prominence thanks to their demagogic support for minority rights. Describing herself as a Palestinian American, she regularly uses Twitter to attack Israel.

Retweeting a video by minorities-supporting campaign group “She The People” on election day, Tlaib commented: “Get out of the way. We are here and more are coming.” Read more…

T. Belman. The king will be deposed this year.

Development could lead to further American pressure on Amman to extradite Ahlam Tamimi, who played a major role in organizing the ‘Sbarro attack’ in Jerusalem in 2001

By Amir Tibon, HAARETZ

WASHINGTON — The White House is rejecting claims by its Middle Eastern ally Jordan that a Palestinian-Jordanian terrorist who was involved in the murder of U.S. citizens cannot be extradited to face trial in the United States.

A new report published this week by the State Department says explicitly that the U.S. considers its extradition treaty with Jordan to be valid, despite a Jordanian court ruling from 2017 that said the opposite.

This development could lead to further American pressure on Jordan to extradite Ahlam Tamimi, a Hamas terrorist who played a major role in organizing the “Sbarro attack” in Jerusalem in August 2001, a suicide bombing which led to the deaths of 15 people, including two American citizens.
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By David M. Halbfinger and Richard Pérez-Peña, NYT

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said Thursday that the International Atomic Energy Agency had validated his longstanding allegation that Iran has been maintaining a secret nuclear site in violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty — a claim that the agency did not publicly confirm.

Mr. Netanyahu’s assertion came as the Vienna-based agency held a closed-door meeting on Thursday about questions concerning Iran’s “safeguard declarations,” but did not specify more precisely what had been discussed.

The Israeli leader spoke hours after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, while visiting Europe, accused Iran of “nuclear extortion” by having accelerated its ability to develop a nuclear weapon in a shortened time frame.

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After nearly 2 years of relative silence on the swirling controversies in the White House, Jared and Ivanka seem to be bracing for a fight.

By Ron Kampeas, JTA,

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, the New York socialites who were supposed to soften the blunt edges of the Trump administration, appear to be taking the gloves off.

After nearly two years of relative silence on the swirling controversies in the White House, President Donald Trump’s daughter and son-in-law, both of whom hold senior advisory positions in the West Wing, seem to be bracing for a fight.

Last month, in a rare media interview, Kushner took an even rarer swipe at one of the president’s opponents, saying he had been busy “cleaning up the messes” Vice President Joe Biden left behind in the Middle East. And Ivanka — whose Twitter feed is best described as part travelogue, part booster of good economic data — recently featured a tweet describing her father as surrounded by “enemies and spies.”
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From Gerald Honigman

Dear Friends,<

Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings….

Since this represents the largest denomination of American Jews, think about what the implications of the following article are:

https://www.jns.org/opinion/rabbi-jacobs-eretz-yisrael-and-the-reformatting-of-reform-judaism/

Ah yes, “rabbi” Jacobs.

I know I’m not going to win many fans by what I’m now sending,

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